Sustainable Housing & Urban Studies Unit (SHUSU)

Integration up north (IUN)

The research was one part of a wider project led by Migration Yorkshire (the regional migration partnership for Yorkshire  and the Humber region), which aimed to understand  and  help integration of ‘Third Country Nationals’ in the North of England. The University of Salford was a partner in this project, along with an organisation called Migration Work.  The whole project aimed to improve and mainstream the integration  of  Third Country Nationals through a comprehensive and co-ordinated programme of research, training, guidance, strategic support and migrant participation for Local Authorities, key policy-makers and practitioners.      

A team of experienced researchers from University of Salford undertook fieldwork across the region. This had two key aims: To provide a greater understanding of how ‘routes in’ can impact on integration experiences, with different groups of migrants experiencing settlement in different ways;  To  consider  how  ‘services’ (including public and private) may need to respond to different groups of people settling in the United Kingdom (UK). The focus was on the following groups, which is based on data from the region on migration trends, but also where gaps have been identified:      

  • Highly skilled migrants and their dependants, on Tier 2 work visas (or equivalent) who have arrived in the UK ideally within the last two years – particularly citizens of India, China, Philippines and other South / South East Asian countries OR Ghana, Nigeria and other    West    African    nations – and their dependants.  
  • Family joiners – particularly of South Asian heritage – mainly Pakistani, and Bangladeshi nationals who have arrived in the UK ideally within in the last two years.              
  • Case Resolution – former asylum seekers now living in Yorkshire and Humber, whose cases were handled as part of the UK government’s legacy framework to resolve outstanding applications from before March 5th 2007.              

It involved three methods of data collection: a review of existing data; in depth interviews with migrants; and photo methods.      

Principal Investigators and Co-investigators: Dr Anya Ahmed, Professor Philip Brown, Ewa Duda-Mikulin, Philip Martin and Dr Lisa Scullion.      

Partners: Migration Yorkshire, Migration Work.

Report: Destination integration: Third country nationals in the north of England